Sense and Simplicity
I was speaking to Akul the other day. All of 11 years his world view is very clear. What mummy, daddy and teacher say have to be necessarily right. Life is all about playing with other children, protecting his 7 year -old sister and occasionally having to endure uncle Ravindran's telephonic questions on girlfriends.
While he confesses to like talking to uncle Ravindran, when the subject of girlfriends is brought up he takes recourse to a very simple method of discontinuing the conversation, " Would you like to talk to mummy," he asks politely and passes the telephone to his mother.
While talking to Akul the other day, I asked him what was he doing during his vacation. H e said that he was studying Why ? Shouldn't he be really playing with other children? Wasn't vacation the time to do such things? No. "How will I come first in class if I don’t' study now ? he said ever so simply .
I had to continue trying to have fun at his expense of course . “My dear friend”, I said with an air of wisdom, “Look at all the rich persons. Did any of them really come first in class ? Do you want to come first in class or do you want to be rich.”
"Come first of course," he said in all innocence and in a voice that hinted that I was not quite intelligent enough to understand such things. He was of course too polite to say any such thing . It was my turn to ask to speak to his mother.
On the other hand, take the conversation that I have with most of my other friends. When I recently talked of doing my MBA, I was roundly discouraged. The question usually asked was "Why do you want to waste time and money on such endeavors.
“Aren’t' you already holding a senior position in communications. Come on pal, focus on making money and retiring early”, thus went the advice.
Well. I took that advice and thought that it was more worthwhile improving my lot in life by working, saving, investing and planning to retire rich. The advice was impeccable after all. and the logic compelling. On the wrong side of 40 with a wife and kid to support and ever reducing career spans brought about by long work hours, it was safer to take this route. Not for me the road less traveled.
I wish however that I could share Akul's worldview .The simplicity of his thoughts on life. His conviction that coming first in class and by extension that education is more important than getting rich. And yes share his conviction, mummy, daddy and in my case the wife and boss are always right.
5 comments:
Extremely well written. very insightful.
loved the simple style and pithy humour... i'm a mother of two school going boys who have never and most likely will never stand first in class!! will they be rich - i don't know but i sure hope whatever they are they'll be happy.
i would prefer 'sense and simplicity' as a titile for the material written, than as a caption of Philips brand name.
the material is wrtten not just to fill up the blogs space but does stimulates the sense burdened by the responsibilities in life.
the conclusion seems to be the most interesting part, as it expresses the helplessness and tends to blur the thin line between responsibility and sense of living on our own will.
i appreciate the simplicity with which the thought is been expressed
i would prefer 'sense and simplicity' as a titile for the material written, than as a caption of Philips brand name.
the material is wrtten not just to fill up the blogs space but does stimulates the sense burdened by the responsibilities in life.
the conclusion seems to be the most interesting part, as it expresses the helplessness and tends to blur the thin line between responsibility and sense of living on our own will.
i appreciate the simplicity with which the thought is been expressed
Beautifully written... :)
I have always believed in the fact that, Life is simple.... we make it complex by thinking too much... :)
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